If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent a lot of time over the last few months trying to figure out what this AI is all about.
Big language models, generative AI, algorithmic bias, etc. For those of us who aren’t tech savvy, trying to make sense of the myriad of headlines swirling around artificial intelligence can be overwhelming.
But understanding how AI works is only part of the dilemma. As a society, we also face concerns about social, psychological and ethical implications.
Here, we highlight articles about the deeper issues that the AI revolution raises: bias and inequality, learning processes, work implications, and even artistic processes.
ethical debt
When companies rush software to market, they often incur “technical debt.” This is the cost of having to fix bugs after the program is released, rather than proactively fixing them.
In AI, we have an example of this because companies are racing to compete with each other.
More alarming, however, is “ethical debt” when development teams fail to consider possible social or ethical harm. For example, how AI can replace human work, or how algorithms reinforce biases.
Casey Fiesler, a tech ethics expert at the University of Colorado at Boulder, writes that he is a “tech optimist who thinks and prepares like a pessimist.”
This kind of speculation is a particularly useful skill for engineers trying to make assumptions about outcomes that may not affect them, but can hurt “underrepresented and marginalized groups” in the technical field. Fiesler explained.
As for ethical debt, she noted, “The person who bears it is rarely the one who ultimately pays it.”
is there anyone?
Neil Eisikowitz, director of the Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Massachusetts Boston, explains that AI programs’ abilities give the impression that they are sentient, but they are not.
“ChatGPT-like technology is a sophisticated text-completion application, nothing more, nothing less,” he writes.
But just because AI is unconscious doesn’t mean it’s harmless.
“For me, the pressing question is not whether machines have sentience, but why it is easy to imagine that they are.” project to
According to Eisikovits, who studies the impact of AI on the way we understand ourselves, this anthropomorphic trend “shows the real risks of mentally entwining with technology.”
Given the number of people who talk to their pets and cars, it’s no surprise that chatbots will become so meaningful to those who engage with them. It’s a “strong guardrail” to prevent you from using your connections.
put pen on paper
From the beginning, ChatGPT fueled fears of cheating by parents and teachers. How can an educator, or even a college admissions officer for that matter, determine if an essay was written by a human or a chatbot?
But AI poses a more fundamental problem with writing, according to American University linguist Naomi Barron, who studies the impact of technology on language.
The potential threat of AI to writing has not only to do with honesty, but also with the ability to think for oneself.
Barron pointed to novelist Flannery O’Connor’s remark, “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”
In other words, writing is not just a way to put your thoughts on paper. It’s a process that helps you organize your thoughts in the first place.
AI text generation can be a useful tool, but “there’s a slippery slope between collaboration and intrusion,” writes Baron.
As we step into the ever-growing world of AI, it’s important to remember that “writing should be a journey, not just a destination.”
value of art
Generative AI programs generate not only text, but also complex images. It even won an award or two. In theory, allowing AI to do core things could unlock the big picture creativity of human artists.
Not so fast, said Eisikowitz and Alec Stubbs, a philosopher at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The finished product that the viewer sees is only part of the process we call ‘art’.
For creators and viewers alike, what makes art valuable is the process of making something real and paying attention to its details.
